Tweet

So since it's the beginning of the semester, it means I have to find some new procrastination tools until classes start being interesting. This semester, I've decided to take up Twitter. We'll see how long it lasts.

Breaking the Curse

Since Netflix has all of Seasons 1 and 2 of 30 Rock available on streaming, I've decided to see if I can break the curse. If there is any show on television that could break the curse, I think it might be 30 Rock, both because of all the good talk it's gotten lately, and because it looks to have staying power. Plus, perhaps my curse only applies to hour long shows (although AD puts the lie to that, but perhaps that was a fluke). So, if you watch 30 Rock, be aware that it could start sucking in the next month or so, and if it does, I apologize.

More classes

So the first week is over, and I can continue with my initial musings on my classes. Wednesday night I have Advanced Macro Theory. I used to think that I preferred macro to micro, but in recent years I've come to question that. Now I think I prefer both equally.

Anyways, macro is taught by a guy from Turkey who likes soccer. Yay! The class shouldn't be too bad, although the classroom itself is horrible. It's twice as large as it needs to be for the class size, which means that his voice echos horribly bad. This makes the slight accent a bit harder to understand, but it shouldn't be too bad.

The problem with both theories is that it seems like a lot of time is going to be spent on not a lot of topics. I don't know if this is because they're planning on going incredibly slow, or if the material is really that hard or complex. I guess only time will tell.

Thursday is American Economic History. The only bad thing about this class is also the room its in. Although it doesn't echo, the rows of desks are all connected, which means that if somebody on the other end of the row leans back, the entire row shifts. Super annoying. Plus, the desks are from that 1980's (okay, I'm possibly exaggerating). In general, I don't like desks, and wish that all classrooms had tables.

But the class is going to be awesome (I hope!). I thought it would only be recent history, but am plesantly surprised by the syllabus. We're covering a lot of topics, and there's going to be a lot of work involved, but I think the class will be great. Unfortunately, it's a bit on the applied side, but I guess that's what has to happen if you want to get most economic students interested in history.

All in all, I think it's going to be a good semester for classes.

Initial Thoughs on Advanced Microecnomic Analysis

After running back and forth between two different buildings multiple times, my prof finally figured out where he wants to hold class. And apparently he uses transparencies, meaning that I'm required to buy a book full of the ones he's going to use. This also means that my chosen seat (back left side) is in just the wrong position to be able to see what's being written. Lame!

It seems like we're going to get through the review section really quickly, although the review is really review. I'm going to guess that the topics will be review in general, while the math won't be. So that will be both good and bad.

More initial thoughts on my later classes as they happen, although I already know that if Thursday is held in the classroom that it's supposed to be, it's going to suck. I got much too spoiled in undergrad with really nice classrooms.

Beginning Again

Time to start a new semester! I must say, the beginning of the semester brings both pain and pleasure to me. I hate the first week of classes, mostly because they're completely worthless. But I love the fact that I have a whole semester of new knowledge (hopefully) to look forward to (of course this is usually lost on me by the 11th week).

Also, I'm amazingly looking forward to all my classes this semester. That was sort of true last semester, and I was disappointed with two of them, but I'm hoping that won't happen this time. Two advanced theory classes and a history class will be just what the doctor ordered for this semester, I think. Enough reading and writing in the one class coupled with enough math in the others should be just the thing. I've decided not to continue my Arabic class, but that's only because the class itself was worthless. I did buy the answers to my textbook from Amazon, so hopefully I'll continue with the language outside of the class (I also have Rosetta Stone).

More to look forward this semester:

• Only night classes, which opens up my days for working (money!) and snowboarding (spending money!).
• Running along the river in spring
• Kayaking along the river in late spring
• Soccer

So I'm excited.

Loving it

Christmas vacation is always rough on me, mostly because it means that pretty much the whole family is all home, occupying the same space for far too large a percentage of waking hours. This translates to me needing to be gone as much as possible during said Christmas vacation (I'm talking about the traditional two weeks off). However, I love my January vacation.

I get to sit home alone, getting stuff done as I choose. It also means that I can have either the television to myself (watching old movies that nobody else in the house really appreciates) or the stereo all to myself (listening to really loud, eclectic music that nobody else in the house really appreciates). I don't have to hide in my room due to the loudness that is my family when I'm trying to watch or do something.

In other words, I love the month of January.

I can't help it

I'm going to kill another show. I just can't help it. Maybe this one will break my curse, but since its already in its fourth season, and most shows don't last much longer than 5, probably not. But a girl can hope, can't she?

And no, I'm not sharing what show it is, but I don't think anybody I know watches it, so there's no need to worry.

New Year

I don't really do resolutions, mostly because New Years always seems to sneak up on me, and because I think they're pretty silly. So my non-resolution this year is to catch up with all the friends that I haven't talked to in a while. A lot of these I saw in October, but that was such a whirlwind weekend that while I saw people, there wasn't a whole lot of catching up.

So hopefully I'll use my free month to both visit and email people who I don't hear from very often. And hopefully in there I'll also find time to watch some movies, which have been piling up over the last couple of months (first on the list is a little bit of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton).

Short Update

For those of you who might be wondering why I'm not around for the next week or so, it's because I'm up enjoying the snow of Mammoth.  Obviously there is some internet, but I don't anticipate using it a lot.

That's the spirit!

So yesterday my dad and I decided that it would be fun to go shopping. It was about 11 am on a Monday (which I'd like to point out is a working day). We safely got in and out of Costco, with only one forgotten thing, but got completely derailed on the way to Best Buy. We were going to go look at car speakers and external hard drives, not to mention wine racks (although not at Best Buy), but when the traffic was backed up behind the stoplight before Rosedale, we used the Lowe's parking lot to turn around.

Don't people have to work? Or if they're unemployed, don't they have to save money? I mean, they can't all be teachers.

Plus, all the idiots were out yesterday! We decided to go to Bed, Bath, and Beyond instead of Best Buy. Of course, neither of us realized that it is next In and Out, and that they put crack in their french fries (why else would it be so popular?). The fact that people will sit in line for all of their entire lunch hour just for stupid hamburgers.

In much more fun news, I've decided that watching Gilmore Girls is a very bad influence on me.

DONE

So I had three boring finals and one interesting one. Of course, by interesting I mean impossible during the time limit. But it was still really fun. I'm a bit disappointed that I won't get it back in order to play with actually finishing the problems, but maybe he'll hold onto them until next semester.

I'm definitely ready for a break and am looking forward to six weeks of relaxing, traveling, snowboarding, soccering, and general wandering around the house.

Let it Snow!

I'm all for the cold. I made sure there would be plenty of it where I went to college. But right now the heater is broken in the house, which means that the upstairs is very cold. During the day it's fine because the whole family crowds around the fireplace, but night is pretty cold.

Lately I've felt like it was spring in Spokane, because it's been really clear and sunny, but amazingly cold. I'm thinking the Garces Tournament this weekend will necessitate pants, gloves, and a beanie (good thing I'm at a secondary sight, and nobody will care).

It does, however, mean that there should be plenty of snow at Mammoth that won't be melting!

Embracing my inner-nerd

Okay, we all know I don't have trouble doing that, but I thought I'd share. For the past year and a half, I've been getting more and more into comics. Mostly this means graphic novels, but half the time, I'm reading compilations of weekly or monthly comics in graphic novel form. It's hard to pick an overall favorite of the ones I've read, but I can definitely pick a favorite in terms of art.

Back in the day, the art of comics was pretty run-of-the-mill. I believe they were usually printed in Sunday morning papers, along with whatever comic books came out. But these days, the art in them can be amazing - especially if it is originally published as a novel (and I mean graphic novel). Kingdom Come is such an example of amazing art (it's got a pretty good story, too). I can't imagine how much time the artist had to put into it.

Currently, this is adorning my laptop, to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.



Obviously, that's Superman in the middle, and his reflection is Captain Marvel. They're both surrounded by a pantheon of superheroes (you can see Diana (Wonder Woman), Green Lantern, and the Flash directly behind him).

My only complaint against comics is that there's just so many of them! There's no way I can keep up with all the characters that I love.

"Back when I was your age..."

Last night I was helping my cousins write a paper for her English class. I should have been working on my own paper (like I should be now), but it sounded like so much more fun to edit hers. Anyways, it is on Greek culture in the ancient times (something I'm only slightly familiar with). I should point out that my cousins is a freshman in high school, and is in what they call Honors (the equivalent of our GATE program for freshmen).

Apparently, writing an essay is no longer creative in any way. They have a strict format they have to follow, called the Jane Schaffer Method. This format requires an opening paragraph of 3 - 5 sentences, and each body paragraph to have 11 sentences in the order of "Openings, concrete detail, commentary, commentary, concrete detail, commentary, commentary, concrete detail, commentary, commentary, conclusion. Then you merely repeat that for however many body paragraphs you need, and end with a conclusion that is basically the same as your intro. Further, my cousin is forbidden to use words like "would" and "could" (understandable) and "show" or "shown" (ridiculous).

Perhaps the worst thing about this method is that it encourages run-on sentences. For example, you can't introduce a quote in one sentence, follow with the quote in another sentence, and explain it in a third - because that doesn't follow the "fact, commentary, commentary" format. So you have to both introduce and include your quote in one sentence. Not only does it encourage run-ons, but it also encourages mindless repeating of yourself, merely to meet a sentence quota. Absurd!

But don't take my word for it. I googled "Jane Shaffer" and this highly entertaining blog post came up.

I should point out that it's possible that this whole thing isn't my cousin's teacher's fault. The school district apparently requires this method of writing. Please! Let's stop giving teachers a bad rep by tying their hands at teaching children creativity and how to find their own voice!

Miscalculation

I misjudged how long it would take me to finish my philosophy final this morning. It was supposed to start at 8:00 AM, and I knew that I wouldn't need the full two hours to finish the test. We were told there would be between 60 and 80 questions, all multiple choice, and many would be similar to ones we saw on our quizes. So I figured that I'd give myself an hour, and it would probably take me half an hour.

Nope. 15 minutes is all it took. So now I have an entire extra hour to kill on campus that I tried to not have. This is because I don't have my second final until 5:30. I have a paper and powerpoint presentation to finish for it, and I know if I go home I won't get it done, but I really don't want to be here all day.

At least I got to the library early enough that I have a nice spot staked out (with an outlet claimed). Of course, I'll probably have to vacate at some point to scavenge for food, but hopefully the extension cord I brought will help me find an outlet later.

Some people!

Sometimes it amazes me how stupid people are. Well, maybe that's being harsh, even for me. Perhaps it would be better to say "uneducated" instead of stupid. Or perhaps "unwilling to become educated."

Take today, for example. As I was sitting in line to buy this week's parking pass, a person in front of me had to be told how to fill out a check. He didn't know that on one line you write the words of the dollar amount, and in the box you write the numbers of the dollar amount. I wonder if he knew where to sign. Now if I'm honest, this isn't really a case of being stupid. But by the time somebody is in college, they should have taken it upon themselves to learn how to write a check, especially if, say, they have a checkbook. But in the land of debit cards and online shopping, I guess that isn't necessary anymore.

Second case. In my philosophy class, we occasionally have to participate in an online discussion board though Blackboard (I think we've done this three times). On of the previous discussions that we had was on whether or not there all theories of social and political arrangement involve some assumption of the moral equality of all people. This would be because every theory (except ones that any rational person would automatically discount) involve some sort of equality, or some thing that ought to be distributed equally (for Nozick, this is libertarian property rights, for Rawls this is equal liberty and initial distribution of primary goods).

Anyways, we have this online discussion, and I'd say about 90% of my classmates object to moral equality because "people don't have the same views on morality." Perhaps it isn't clear because I haven't quoted the entire introduction to the discussion, but this is obviously not what "moral equality" means in this case, which is even more obvious if you read our required reading for the discussion (of course I realized hardly anybody actually read it).

So about two or three people make a post about relativist morality, when I make my post. I nicely (at least in my opinion) that almost everybody missed the point, and proceed to explain what the conversation should actually be about, pointing out that I think the moral equality of human beings is based on a shared rationality (although sometimes I have to be in doubt of this). But it doesn't matter! First of all, somebody disagrees with me (silly person!), and everybody still continues to discuss whether or not all people hold the same morals (the answer is a resounding 'no').

But then, in class, our professor points out that "almost everybody missed the point," and refers to my post about the true topic we were supposed to be discussing. But it doesn't matter again! People are still posting (required participation that they didn't realize before, so they're trying to make up some points) and still talking about the lack of universal morals. I just don't get it. Can somebody please explain to me how people can be so stupid, for lack of a better word?

I'm trying not to be harsh, but it's rather difficult when the correct topic has been pointed out not once, but twice, and is still posted for them to read. And I don't want to hear that it's because they're undergrads, or young, because I'm really not that different a student from when I was younger and an undergrad, and I would have gotten the point then. Plus, most of these people are still older than me!

I love this book

In my political philosophy class, our textbook is titled Political Philosophy: A Beginners' Guide for Students and Politicians. It's really quite good - straightforward, well written and organized, and includes most relevant topics. It's also, on occasion, very funny. The author is British, which means nothing, except that some spellings are the British way, there's lots of references to British government (although not exclusive), and his British humor comes out frequently.

The latest awesome quote is this:

"Since most of us believe that democracy, at least in some form, could be legitimate, this point may seem academic. (That's 'academic' in the pejorative sense that condemns my profession to the elucidation of irrelevant niceties)."

And if you don't find that as funny as I do, you're lame.

Crap....

So my headaches usually come in pairs, spaced a few days apart. Which means the one I have right now is going to bring its friend over to play, probably on Thursday night, just to spite me (just like the last time I had a Arabic test followed closely by a huge math test followed by a 4 hour drive to Bakersfield).

Uncool, self. Uncool.

First a president, now a web browser!

I can't believe this. Apparently there is a new web browser specifically tailored for the African American community. It looks exactly like Firefox, but has a black color scheme. Also, it apparently comes preloaded with a bunch of bookmarks that might be of interest to the black community. Because apparently they are unable to go and find their own bookmarks like the rest of the internet community.

Seriously, though? I guess I'm too stuck in my non-minority role in America to see how this is necessary, or even a good thing. We're never going to get beyond race until we stop making it a distinction (which I've said before, and I imagine I'll be saying again). But maybe I'm naive, and that'll never happen. So perhaps it's a good thing that every ethnic group might someday have specific web browsers. Because, you know, they wouldn't take us to the same exact place.

Kiss a wookie, kick a driod

This is amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk5_OSsawz4

Guy didn't write the song, but it's still impressive. And mad props go to the group that wrote the song (if you're really interested, you can follow the link from the video details).